Eggs1

This is a rare weekend post but I wanted to continue with the Egg Week and to keep you up to speed with my preparations. Along the way, I wanted to share with you some of the shortcuts that I am taking with the decorating of the eggs.

The first set of eggs that I will be working on are the Modern Cascarones mentioned earlier. Along the way, I wanted to share with you some of the the specific tools and processes that I use. The first new tool that I wanted to share with you is my drying rack. I have two drying racks. The first is the drying rack for the newly washed and emptied eggs described here. It is made from a egg carton and is used for the sole purpose of drying the white eggs. The reason that this won't work for the dyed eggs is because it isn't preferable to have the dyed eggs touching each other when drying. To help with this dyed egg drying process, I use a plastic colander that is turned over on a newspaper lined cookie sheet. This makes the drying rack mobile and I can move it out of the way while the eggs are drying. As you can see, I have bamboo skewers placed into the holes of the colander so the eggs can dry without touching each other. I can fit 30 eggs per colander. 

The second trick that I use to expedite the dying process is plastic 18 oz cups that are labeled with masking tape to indicate the color combination used for each dying color. I only dye 8 eggs at a time so I can do other things while the eggs are resting in the dye.  I fill each cup with 3/4 water, a teaspoon of vinegar, and the color paste from Williams Sonoma.  For me, the vinegar adds a deeper and richer color when it interacts with the color paste.

I always dye the cascarones first because I can gauge how well the color is holding and how long to keep the eggs in their color bath. Since the tops of the eggs will be cover with some material after they are stuffed, it is a great way to test out your dyes.

 The mottled/marbled eggs that appear on the bottom of the colander are hand dyed with Dr. Ph. Martins Water Color Concentrate. I use the eggs after they have come out of their base color. I then put color in cling film and then wrap the cling film around the egg. I leave the cling film on the egg for several minutes. I then take off the cling film and use it to marble the eggs and to take off the excess water color concentrate.

The eggs will dry overnight and I will continue with the cascarones and fill them tomorrow.